Dr Rachael Miller (Harrison)

Replication studies: a win-win for early-career training and behavioral ecology Replicating previous research builds confidence that results are real and meaningful. But close replications are rare due to limitations in resources and d

How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications.

My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/

academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

Save the date information for the upcoming European Conference on Behavioural Biology: Animal Behaviour in the Anthropocene. 1-4 September 2026 at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK.

Save the date for the next European Conference on Behavioural Biology!
Animal Behaviour in the Anthropocene, 1-4 September 2026 at Anglia Ruskin University.
Watch this space for updates on speakers, plenaries, and calls for abstracts!

#AcademicSky #UpcomingConferences

If you work on corvid ecology, behaviour, cognition, or conservation, this might be useful for you 👇
I’ve just published CORVIDATA in Scientific Data 🐦
doi.org/10.1038/s415... (1/4)

Academia is just a job Nature Human Behaviour - Working in academia can be stressful. Laurel Raffington suggests treating it as ‘just a job’ to reduce performance pressure and advocate for structural...

The author provided this link for open access in her post, hopefully it works for you - rdcu.be/eThTl

In this blog post, Guest Editor @rachkendal.bsky.social discusses their #PhilTransB issue, 'Transforming cultural evolution research and its application to global futures': royalsociety.org/blog/2025/12...

Anthropogenic change and the loss of behavioural diversity Abstract. Behavioural diversity is an important but understudied facet of biodiversity that enables wildlife populations to cope with rapidly changing envi

What are the causes & consequences of behavioural diversity loss in a changing world? And how do we harness this knowledge for conservation? New open access paper led by @odedberger-tal.bsky.social with David Saltz and @mrmic1.bsky.social

#BobWongLab

royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

New paper out today w @dalmaijer.bsky.social @barbaraklump.bsky.social and @lucymaplin.bsky.social as part of the Phil Trans special issue doi.org/10.1098/rstb.... Over 2 years, we studied a population of cockatoos thought to be the source of the innovation of bin-opening.

Enjoyed giving an invited research talk today for the Behaviour & Ecology Research Group at @uniofhull.bsky.social - thanks very much for inviting and hosting me, @drblakemorton.bsky.social :)

Bad mentors hurt people What to do about bad mentors?

You know those labs that keep harming students, again and again? Some reflections on why it's so hard to stop this from happening and where our responsibilities lie.

scienceforeveryone.science/bad-mentors-... 🧪

New amazing open Postdoc position, w/t opportunities to 1) get closely involved in our next @themanybirds.bsky.social study on innovation and problem-solving; 2) work with @ecobird.bsky.social on avian innovation, cognition & invasiveness. Advert: www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...

New amazing open Postdoc position, w/t opportunities to 1) get closely involved in our next @themanybirds.bsky.social study on innovation and problem-solving; 2) work with @ecobird.bsky.social on avian innovation, cognition & invasiveness. Advert: www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...

Amazing opportunity for a PhD position with the wonderful Dr Megan Lambert in Vienna and her fascinating kea parrots! 10/10 recommend working with Dr Lambert. See advert linked below for more info.

Postdoctoral fellow

🐦 EcoBird is hiring a Postdoc in animal cognition!

Join us + @themanybirds.bsky.social to investigate innovation & problem-solving in birds.

📅 Start: as early as Jan 2026
🌍 Funded through UGent’s international mobility scheme

More info & how to apply ↓
www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...

Playing dice with behavior: drivers of stochastic individuality Animal behavior is often viewed as stemming from predictable genetic and environmental factors. However, despite our best attempts to control genetic …

Our new paper offers an explanation for the universal law that "under carefully controlled conditions.... an animal behaves as it damn well pleases." We explore how stochastic mechanisms may play an underappreciated role in generating individuality. (1/7 🧵)

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The MBirds paper is out! Congratulations to all collaborators on this major accomplishment 🧪 The study found interesting differences in neophobia between migratory and non-migratory species: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Left: Examples of novel objects used. Each black/white bar is 5 cm long. The objects ranged in size from a third to half the size of the subjects: (a) Southern cassowary, Casuarius casuarius, (b) Moluccan eclectus, Eclectus roratus, (c) Rüppell’s vulture, Gyps rueppelli, (d) gray-winged trumpeter, Psophia crepitans, (e) common waxbill, Estrilda astrild. Right: Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) at Adlerwarte Berlebeck, Germany, interacting with a novel object. Image credit Kai Caspar.

Fear of novelty varies across species & individuals, impacting adaptability & survival. @themanybirds.bsky.social @drrmiller.bsky.social &co assess #neophobia in 1400 subjects from 136 #bird species, identifying phylogenetic influences & broad ecological drivers @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4haLEsN

It was such an incredible, enriching, and fun experience — I learned so much ❤️ So thankful to the amazing leadership team who welcomed me! @drrmiller.bsky.social @vedranaslipogor.bsky.social @nomascus.bsky.social @stephanreber.bsky.social @cds-york.bsky.social Megan Lambert & Claudia Mettke-Hofmann

So excited that our first major empirical @themanybirds.bsky.social paper is now out in @plosbiology.org!
Leading this big team science project, with our excellent core leadership team, is a labour of love for me, delighted to see our hard work over the past 4 years has reached this milestone!

Planning was not linked with theory of mind, thus thinking about one's own future may rely on a different skill set than switching perspectives. Using this under-represented sample, we show managing one's own thoughts/actions is a crucial building block for learning how to prepare for tomorrow. 6/6

Figure shows mean scores of children’s responses in Card in Basket task, i.e. one of the 4 future-oriented cognition tasks

Our findings: age four seems to be a turning point, 4- and 5-year-olds outperformed 3-year-olds - consistent with Western findings, suggesting a common developmental milestone. Planning & executive functions were linked: children with stronger executive functions were better at future planning. 5/

We tested future-oriented cognition (imagining/ constructing mental representations of future & future planning), executive function (working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility) and theory of mind (understanding/ attributing mental states to others). 4/

Most research on this topic has focused on children in Western countries. To broaden our understanding, we conducted a study with 87 3 to 5-year olds in China to see if their development followed similar patterns. 3/

As researchers, we're fascinated by how children learn to think about the future. You might see this challenge in your own life - ever tried to convince a preschooler to bring a jacket because it might get cold later, only for them to refuse because they're warm now? 2/

Cognitive correlates of future-oriented cognition in young Chinese children Future-oriented cognition, which broadly encompasses an array of cognitive processes involved in understanding, constructing, imagining and planning f…

New paper just out: Rachael Miller @drrmiller.bsky.social, Ning Ding & Nicky Clayton in Cognitive Development: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... on the “Cognitive correlates of future-oriented cognition in young Chinese children”. @campsydept.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk 1/

Stay tuned for a very exciting update coming shortly from the ManyBirds Project! Eeek!

Dream team: Alessandroni @drrmiller.bsky.social @dremalt.bsky.social @marinabazhydai.bsky.social @mamsmandrill.bsky.social @jespinosa.bsky.social Gjoneska @izziehb.bsky.social @valmazza.bsky.social Paukner @epronizius.bsky.social Proulx, Qadri, Reilly, Schwing ...

It's been a busy few weeks, with also giving a research talk at the Behaviour Discussion Group, Department of Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter in June - thank you again to @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social for hosting me! 2/2

Powerpoint title slide

Really enjoyed giving an invited research talk today at the Behaviour and Evolution seminar series, Departments of Behavioural Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Theoretical Biology at Bielefeld University. Thank you @kpg13.bsky.social ‪for inviting me! 1/2

Check our new preprint! Our systematic review of 206 reversal learning studies shows that behavioural flexibility research is heavily biased towards birds, rodents, and humans, with most animal diversity virtually untested. #Manymanys #BigTeamScience #ComparativeCognition